For Boehner, 'it's all on the line'

John Boehner faces the biggest test of his speakership Friday morning as he tries to resuscitate a monumental debt-limit bill that was forced from the floor Thursday night because Republican leaders hadn’t lined up enough votes to pass it.

On the line: The outcome of a debt-limit increase that has consumed Washington and New York for months, Boehner’s standing in the Republican Conference, and the balance of power between the House GOP and the Democrats who control the White House and the Senate. Republican leaders hoped to put the bill back on the floor Friday, either in its current form or in a slightly altered state, and some in the GOP worried that Thursday night’s failure to move the bill could disrupt markets.

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But Boehner has been in plenty of tough scrapes before, and he tends to stay very cool when others start to panic. He’ll address his troops at 10 a.m. Friday in a closed meeting in the basement of the Capitol with a lot at stake.

“This is the key week of Boehner’s speakership,” Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) told POLITICO. “It’s all on the line.”

Late Thursday night, GOP leaders were working with rank-and-file lawmakers to find a way to include a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution as part of a package with the debt-limit bill. One option that was discussed was using an arcane “enrollment correction” procedure to wrap them together.

Deep into the night Republican leaders debated whether to bring the bill to the Rules Committee for a revision and then force a vote, which would have led to hours of post-midnight debate and possible confusion among weary members.

Boehner urged other leaders to call it a night and go back at the bill on Friday. Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) wanted to continue to work for more votes, but Boehner “made the tactical decision” to adjourn for the evening and review the situation in the morning, according to a GOP insider.

Whether Boehner can pass his bill remains unclear. The speaker’s aides were privately confident that the Boehner proposal would be taken up and passed on Friday, as were other leadership offices.

Yet Boehner still has his doubters in his own ranks. “This is huge, this is everything for him,” said one well-connected GOP staffer, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “If it doesn’t, then he’s in big trouble.”

Boehner and his top lieutenants worked deep into Thursday night trying to find a just-right solution that would attract 216 votes for the package of $900 billion in new borrowing authority, $917 billion in spending cuts over the next decade, and a process for entitlement and tax reform legislation that could lead to $1.6 trillion or so in deficit reduction and a second increase in the debt limit.

They don’t have available to them the same tools as past Republican leadership teams: There are no earmarks to hand out, nor any to take away, for example.

Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), one of the last holdouts and a candidate for the Senate in Arizona, spoke of how “refreshing” it was to see a lobbying effort bereft of the legislative grease that used to secure last-minute votes in the House. He said the vote-building would have “cost $20 billion” in the past.

GOP leaders ran into resistance from a broad array of conservatives, some acting in concert with each other and others acting more as lone wolves. The South Carolina delegation couldn’t be cracked. Led by freshman Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.), the five GOP members from that state refused to give over their votes.